At the centre of the swamps, another battle was raging on. Steel was clashing against steel. Magic against magic. Monster against a monster. It was a scene worthy of being called an all-out war. The constant ringing of explosions only contributed to add more adrenaline to their bodies. 

Warriors of the syndicate held back as their magicians rained hell upon the lizardman and Nagas alike. They were following the orders of their elected leader, Arnold. But little did they know, even though they were following Arnold's orders, it wasn't Arnold who was leading them. It was Talos. 

Back when Arnold and Talos were interrogating the albino lizardman, Arnold willingly poured a few drops of his blood into Talos' transformation rune. Yup. Talos could now transform into his maker. This, coupled with the fact that he was using Arnold's old equipment, including the Vindicator, he completely looked like Arnold. Moreover, Talos was acting his part quite well.

Although he didn't manage to inherit Arnold's most powerful abilities. He did get a hold of Ice control ability. Which meant, he could stop the mermen from jumping in the mix. Also, Talos already had gunslinger abilities so in the eyes of the warriors, he was pretty much the same Arnold whom they have been following. 

So far, only Nicole had caught the impostor. That too was thanks to Donna. Although, Talos couldn't completely fool Nina and she thought something was off with Arnold. She eventually chalked it up to the stress of the battle. 

As for the battle, it was going as good as expected. As Arnold had planned, they were killing two birds with one stone. Under the guise of misfiring, they were constantly eliminating nagas as well as the lizardmen. Although the lizardmen were more in numbers and had superior fighting skills, they weren't a match against the high-level magic casters. 

But there was something no one had noticed till now. Their magic was only effective against the low-level lizardmen. Hell, their magic hadn't killed a single elite lizardman. Nagas were the ones to kill the few elites but Talos wasn't concerned about it at all. Everything was going as per his and Arnold's predictions. 

Under the constant fire from the syndicate and lizardmen, the nagas were soon eradicated. The lizardmen marked their next target: the humans who had been hiding behind the nagas. Without taking a moments rest, the lizardmen charged at their new opponents. They couldn't wait to taste human meat after all of this was over. But came to a halt soon. 

Between them and the humans, was a long field. A field with no trees to provide them cover. They were thinking about where all of the trees went? How could hundreds of trees have disappeared overnight? 

It was thanks to Arnold, but the lizardmen had no way of knowing that. Without the cover of the trees, many of them were reluctant to continue fighting. Knowing that there must be traps to take care of them. 

"I never thought my brothers were a bunch of yellow-bellied weaklings." A loud growl echoed behind them, followed by loud thumping footsteps.

The lizardmen immediately bowed their heads down. They knew who the voice belonged to and it was someone they all had the utmost respect for. He was the lizardman, they all followed. The strongest among their kind. Their king, Grock, the black lizardman. 

***

Talos, under Arnold's guise, instructed the mages to stop. They had already thinned the crowd down to as much as they could. Now it was time for the rest to shine. Within a moment, Tanks, Brawlers and swordsman were in formation. Awaiting orders. But they weren't the first line of defence. In front of them, stood over a thousand automatons and sentry guns. 

'These soldiers are valorous, I'd give them that.' Talos thought, 'However, most of them will die here if not all. Master's words were clear: if things didn't go as planned, I have to focus on saving the black family only. Once they are safe I can make the call to save the rest or run. But it's unlikely anything would go south now.'

Talos waited for the lizardmen to make their move first. But seeing as there was no movement from the enemy, he signalled the automatons. The next minute the sentry guns open fired on their enemies. But the bullets weren't your run of the mill bullets either. They were incendiary rounds. An upgraded version of the fiery bullets which Arnold used. 

These newly improved bullets coupled with the power and rate of fire of the sentry guns was enough to melt any lizardman's tough hide like butter. 

"Let them burn," Talos mumbled. 

***

Back at Arnold's position... 

Fighting against the humanoids was a lot easier than expected. They had explosive strength but their moves weren't refined. Half of the time they didn't know what they were doing. All they knew was to slaughter anything in front of them. 

Some of them even went to try their luck against Scylla. Which turned out to be a big mistake. Not only did they mess with Scylla while she was having fun, they even managed to piss her off. As a result, Arnold didn't have to do much. 

Had this been the scenario before his ascension, he might not have made out of it all in a single piece. He was sure of it. 

"I think I should make a cemetery here. After all, it more or less looks like the same. Just add a few headstones, bury the corpses and there you have a premium quality graveyard right here!" 

[Destroyer class abilities charged up 52%]

"I killed more than a thousand people and it's still at 52%?" Arnold was confused, but the system was there to cure his confusion. 

[I assume, I informed you that the abilities charge as you cause destruction.]

"Yeah you did and that's why-"

[Now look around you. What do you see, death or destruction?]

"System-sama, with all due respect, what's the fcking difference between them?"

[A lot. You didn't cause destruction, you minimised it. Just killing won't justify itself to killing. It's a massacre, yes. But I don't dictate the terms of your abilities. Next time focus more on destruction.]

"..."

Arnold was speechless. He had never heard such a crappy excuse from anyone! He felt like he was cheated over in a lottery. But there wasn't anything he could do about it now. Thus, he went to do what he went there for, to kill Devon.